Daily blog 11/6

We started class off today with a question- how does Get Out engage in a conversation with academia? Then we analyzed a quote from Dr. Robin Means Coleman from the University of Michigan. "What is scarier than a murderous dinosaur is going to be a big, black man with a big, black gun. So, that means that that dinosaur has to kill that black man... To establish that the dinosaur is kind of a badass, he has to do away with the big, black man with that big, black gun.. So that's why you kill the black man... early in a horror film. It establishes the superiority and the horribleness of the monster... The other thing that is does is that if the monster is so bad that it even kills off brothers, then the white man who ultimately defeats the monster has to be intellectually superior, racially superior." After reading this quote, we discussed how the movie can apply or contradict this quote. I personally thought about Mr. Armitage, or Rose's father, who is a neurosurgeon which gives off the impression that he is very intelligent and privileged. I think director Peele chose this as his profession because a neurosurgeon is a stereotype much like a "rocket scientist". In addition, Mrs. Armitage (Rose's mother) is the one who takes advantage of the black people that are lured onto their property with her experience as a psychiatrist. She uses hypnosis on the victims and puts them into the "sunken place" so their physical superiority can be used for whatever purpose. Dr Coleman says in her quote, "the white man who ultimately defeats the monster has to be intellectually superior, racially superior." This can be applied to Get Out because the Armitages know that they cannot simply grab the black men and subdue them successfully. Instead, they dominate them intellectually through education as both a neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist. Then we started talking about the opening scene and described the man who eventually gets attacked by an unknown person with a helmet on. He was dressed casually and looked rather average. He did not reflect any common stereotypes of black men such as loose clothing or large stature. The opening scene contradicts the "big black man" description that Dr. Coleman mentioned several times. To end the class day, we attempted to watch the alternate ending of Get Out. Unfortunately, the clip could not be loaded and we have to wait until Wednesday to watch it.